20.10.24 - Birth :Sheila na gig

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Ireland has so many goddess for childbirth and a deep devotion and respect for the body of the woman and the life it is able to sustain and bring to bear.

We are tremendously lucky in that this land and the people still retain this knowledge and feeling and we are able to return to it, embers and sparks, and once more blow it's flame and power into strength.

The genitalia of women is something which women themselves have always been embarrassed about. It either has to be hidden or regarded with so much of secrecy that it is only every seen in pornographic contexts. 

However, in the past people were less squeamish and in Ireland there is a revival of the Sheela. To me the Sheela in Sheela na gig is a reference to the Sidhe - the hidden ones... la I know in Irish means every - and na is the plural when you use 'the' so what is gig. The Hidden Ones? It is a reference to the other world...

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